Chapter 39: Information About Elena Vane

The Academy Old Research Archive was located northwest of the White Tower.

Unlike the Knowledge Hall, which ordinary students could freely enter, this place mostly stored terminated research projects, personal materials left behind by deceased instructors, and magical experiment records that were no longer in active use.

Security at the entrance was even stricter than at the skill storage area.

Victor and Leah were stopped the moment they arrived.

"Students are prohibited from entering alone," the security guard there said.

"Her records are inside." Victor pointed toward Leah.

The instructor guarding the entrance recognized her, his eyes widening.

After yesterday’s Astral Spirit Envoy phenomenon, there was probably no one left in the academy who did not know who Leah was. It was not even a stretch to say that she had become something of a minor celebrity overnight.

"Please wait." The instructor quickly contacted someone.

Less than ten minutes later, a familiar figure emerged from inside the archive.

It was, of course, Vice Dean Albert.

The moment he saw Victor, his eyebrows visibly twitched in annoyance.

"You again."

"Why do I feel like the Vice Dean doesn’t welcome me?"

"If you can cause something like yesterday’s disturbance every single day..." Albert replied indifferently. "Then I truly don’t."

"I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that." Victor smiled. "Well, I’m only here to retrieve something today."

"What is that?"

"Leah’s mother’s research materials."

Albert looked toward the girl.

Leah quickly explained. "My mother used to have a private storage locker. I want to look for information related to the Astral Spirit Envoy."

The reason was perfectly valid, leaving Albert with little reason to refuse.

"Follow me."

Thanks to the spatial expansion magic within, the archive was far larger than it appeared from the outside. Rows upon rows of metal storage lockers and archive shelves stretched into the distance, nearly disappearing from sight.

The three walked all the way to an old project section at the deepest part of the archive.

Finally, Albert stopped before a silver locker covered in dust.

[Project Number: S1736]

[Person in Charge: Elena Vane]

Leah’s hand trembled slightly at the sight of her mother’s name. After three years, seeing it before her again brought an intense surge of emotion.

Albert glanced at her and said, "Your mother’s research was classified as a failed project by the academy back then. After seven consecutive years, she still failed to find a single living case that could truly verify the existence of an astral class. After she died, the project was naturally terminated."

Leah remained silent. There was nothing wrong with Albert’s words. After all, everything he had said was true. Only after what felt like three minutes did she finally speak again.

"How did she die?"

The moment those words left her mouth, the atmosphere subtly changed.

Victor, as observant as ever, keenly noticed something. Albert did not answer immediately as he usually did. The hesitation was extremely subtle, but it was unmistakable.

Leah raised her head as well. "Vice Dean?"

"Laboratory accident," Albert finally answered.

The same thing Cecilia had told them yesterday. However, for some reason, Victor suddenly felt more wary.

"What kind of experiment?" he asked.

Albert looked at him, his gaze turning cold. "That has nothing to do with you."

"It might now."

"Why? How is it your concern?"

Victor did not explain because the moment he approached this storage locker, the System had displayed a strange notification.

[Detected Special Residual Fate]

[Source Unknown]

[Highly Correlated With Investment Target Leah Vane]

[Consume 1 Investment Point to Trace Information?]

"Yes," Victor said without hesitation.

[Investment Point: 1 Consumed]

[Tracing...]

The surface of the storage locker quickly changed within Victor’s vision. An almost transparent silver trace extended from the locker door all the way into its deepest section.

Immediately afterward, a hidden compartment was directly marked by the System.

[Fate Related Item Discovered]

"Open the locker first," Victor said.

Albert did not continue questioning him.

He unlocked it with his access card.

Click.

The locker opened, and the smell of old paper immediately drifted out.

There was not much inside. A dozen or so handwritten research notebooks, several mana crystals that had long since lost their power, a wooden box containing outdated magical instruments, and a neatly folded white research coat.

The moment Leah saw the coat, her eyes visibly reddened, but she didn’t tear up. She only reached out and gently touched it.

Victor, meanwhile, looked directly toward the deepest part of the locker.

"There’s something behind it."

Albert frowned. "What?"

Victor reached out and knocked against the inner wall.

Thud.

A hollow sound echoed softly.

Albert’s brows furrowed as he stepped forward, placed his palm against the wall, then released a slight pulse of mana.

Click.

To the surprise of both Leah and Albert, a hidden compartment barely two fingers wide actually popped open.

Inside was a black storage ring.

"I didn’t know about this." Leah was shocked when she saw the ring.

Albert clearly had not known either. The ring had no academy registration number, which meant Elena Vane had never listed it among the project’s assets.

It had been left behind privately, which also raised the question of how Victor knew that the hidden compartment was right there.

’This brat, even if I were to ask, he’s going to give me some bullshit reply like "instincts,"’ he thought silently.

Leah reached toward the ring, but just before her fingers touched it, Victor suddenly grabbed her wrist.

"Wait."

"What’s wrong?"

[Astral Contamination Detected]

[Contamination Intensity: Moderate]

[Direct Contact Currently Poses a Risk to Target]

’Astral contamination again?’

Victor immediately remembered the reason Leah had died in the original plot two years later. The System had mentioned it before. Two years after withdrawing from the academy, she had accidentally come into contact with astral contamination, awakened an incomplete Astral Spirit ability, and died three days later.

Could it be this?

No. The timing did not match.

But it could very well be the same type of thing.

"There’s contamination on it," Victor said.

Albert’s expression changed drastically. "How sure are you?"

Without bothering to answer Albert, Victor extended his right hand and activated [Mana Devour].

An extremely faint strand of silver gray energy was instantly extracted from the surface of the storage ring. Unlike the pure astral energy from yesterday, this energy was noticeably more chaotic. It even contained something resembling fragments of consciousness.

[Contaminated Astral Energy Detected]

[Mana Devour Beginning Decomposition]

[Decomposition Successful]

[Obtained Astral Resistance Fragment ×1]

[Current Progress: 1/10]

Victor’s eyes glinted slightly. After Infinite Evolution, [Mana Devour] really had begun extracting more things from special forms of energy. But now was not the time to study it.

"It’s safe now," Victor said.

Leah nodded and then picked it up.

A faint spiritual lock was placed on the storage ring, but because its owner had been dead for three years, the seal had become extremely fragile. As such, Albert was able to break it in less than a minute.

The next second, everything inside was taken out.

There were several more private notebooks, a damaged silver disk, and three completely dimmed Star Marrow Fragments.

And lastly, a letter.

On this letter, there was only one name written on it.

[Leah]

...

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